This was a wonderful day for global rugby. This was a dire day for English rugby and, potentially, serious for the national team’s head coach. It does not take too much imagination to believe that the narrow, nationalistic view on the decline of the world champions will overshadow the world view.
At Twickenham on Saturday, Argentina stood up for the little men of rugby, the countries on whose plight we reflect every four years at a World Cup — Samoa, Romania, Georgia and the rest — and then conveniently forget. This was a result that will resound through the next ten months, particularly if Argentina complete an unbeaten tour against Italy and the World Cup host nation, France.
England, though, see no end to the downward spiral that has, for the third time in their history, brought seven successive defeats. Nor is that the worst of it. Neither New Zealand, who inflicted a record home loss six days earlier, nor Argentina had to produce rugby from the gods to win. Argentina adhered to a basic plan, and did the simple things well.
Thus they became the first country from outside rugby’s established eight nations to win at Twickenham, and deservedly so. They demonstrated all the qualities that England lack — leadership, from Agustin Pichot and Ignacio Fernández Lobbe; reliable goalkicking, from Federico Todeschini; and wonderful reading of the game, from Juan-Martín Hernández and Gonzalo Longo.
“The best thing Argentina had today was their attitude,” Marcelo Loffreda, the coach, said. “We have shown to the world that we are at the same level as the great rugby-playing countries. The best way we have of shouting is on the pitch and today we shouted loudly.”
England produced no more than a whisper. Player after player emerged from a devastated dressing-room to accept blame. “No one can be held responsible apart from the players,” Martin Corry, the captain, said. “I don’t think the game we are trying to play is alien to us. We’re professional players, playing as part of a team, to a pattern . . . No one wants to be part of a team that is booed off the pitch at Twickenham, but I can understand the public’s frustration.”
There was no area of the game in which England had control, their performance illuminated only by two delightful individual tries, which made the gloom around seem all the worse. The assertive back play they produced against the All Blacks dribbled away once it became apparent that clearing the rucks and mauls, even clearing from the set-pieces, was a problem. Pichot, the scrum half, far from his playing best but always bouncing around on his toes, harassed Shaun Perry, his opposite number, unmercifully and the Argentina flankers revelled at the breakdown.
Watching England’s continued decline has become like watching the Wales of the 1980s desperately trying to reclaim the glories of their illustrious predecessors. There is a sense of bewilderment when their industry does not produce the desired result, a desperation made worse when compared with the accuracy of New Zealand’s game played against France in a downpour in Lyons five hours later.
The hamstring tweak that removed Gonzalo Tiesi from the fray only brought on Todeschini to punish every England indiscretion, a litany of dropped balls and unnecessary offsides, conceding all the advantage that Paul Sackey’s first-half try had brought them. Sackey, who later left with the recurrence of an injury to his left knee, erupted between two defenders and rounded Hernández with ease to score his first international try.
But by half-time England had all but squandered their lead; when the first-choice half backs were removed early in the second half, it was a desperate throw of the dice and the unfortunate Toby Flood, winning his first cap, dispatched the pass that was intercepted by Todeschini and which effectively decided the outcome of the match. The fly half streaked away for 60 metres, yet England could still have retaken the lead had Flood converted a glorious try by Iain Balshaw. The full back, who is never better than when reacting instinctively, ran on to a tapped penalty when the injured Hernández was still receiving attention and arced through and round the cover for the try. But Flood snatched at his conversion and Argentina were in no mood to let matters slip. Their forwards forced errors, England lost a vital lineout and Todeschini extended the lead. It was typical that the final roll of the dice, a prolonged siege of the Argentina line, should end with a knock-on — by Magnus Lund.
SCORERS: England: Tries: Sackey (32min), Balshaw (61). Conversion: Hodgson. Penalty goals: Hodgson (4), Flood (60). Argentina: Try: Todeschini (55). Conversion: Todeschini. Penalty goals: Contepomi (7), Todeschini 5 (38, 40, 43, 69, 73).
SCORING SEQUENCE (England first): 3-0, 3-3, 10-3, 10-6, 10-9 (half-time), 10-12, 10-19, 13-19, 18-19, 18-22, 18-25.
ENGLAND: I Balshaw (Gloucester); P Sackey (London Wasps; rep: J Lewsey, London Wasps, 54), J Noon (Newcastle Falcons), A Allen (Gloucester), B Cohen (Northampton); C Hodgson (Sale Sharks; rep: T Flood, Newcastle Falcons, 52), S Perry (Bristol; rep: P Richards, Gloucester, 48); P Freshwater (Perpignan), G Chuter (Leicester; rep: L Mears, Bath, 70), J White (Leicester), D Grewcock (Bath; rep: T Palmer, London Wasps, 51), B Kay (Leicester), M Corry (Leicester, captain), L Moody (Leicester; rep: M Lund, Sale Sharks, 8-12), P Sanderson (Worcester; rep: Lund, 70).
ARGENTINA: J-M Hernández (Stade Français); J-M Núnez Piossek (Bayonne), G Tiesi (London Irish; rep: F Todeschini, Montpellier, 24), M Avramovic (Worcester; rep: H Agulla, Hindú, 56), P Gómez Cora (Lomas Athletic); F Contepomi (Leinster), A Pichot (Stade Français, captain); M Ayerza (Leicester), M Ledesma (Clermont Auvergne), O Hasan (Toulouse; rep: M Scelzo, Clermont Auvergne, 66), I Fernández Lobbe (Sale Sharks; rep: E Lozada, CASI, 56-60), P Albacete (Toulouse), J-M Leguizamón (London Irish; rep: M Schusterman, Leeds Tykes, 66), J-M Fernández Lobbe (Sale Sharks), G Longo (Clermont Auvergne).
Referee: K Deaker (New Zealand).
Attendance: 74,027.
THE FIGURES THAT DON’T LIE
England’s worst losing sequences
1904-06
3-6 v Scotland (Edinburgh)
0-25 v Wales (Cardiff)
3-17 v Ireland (Cork)
0-8 v Scotland (Richmond)
0-15 v New Zealand (Crystal Palace)
3-16 v Wales (Richmond) 6-16 v Ireland (Leicester
1971-72
15-16 v Scotland (Twickenham)
6-26 v Scotland (Edinburgh)
11-28 v RFU President’s XV (Twickenham)
3-12 v Wales (Twickenham)
12-16 v Ireland (Twickenham)
12-37 v France (Paris)
9-23 v Scotland (Edinburgh)
2006
12-18 v Scotland (Edinburgh)
6-31 v France (Paris)
24-28 v Ireland (Twickenham)
3-34 v Australia (Sydney)
18-43 v Australia (Melbourne)
20-41 v New Zealand (Twickenham)
18-25 v Argentina (Twickenham)
